2023 June
-
Previously: Supergirl Finale and What Remains of the Arrowverse Finally managed to power through the end of Flash season 9 this past week. This season served as both the series finale and the overall finale for the Arrowverse shared universe. (Superman and Lois is still ongoing, but despite its roots, that show has been declared not in-Arrowverse). The season was okay; the first half story arc (vs Red Death) felt like the usual Flash ridiculousness but the second half was a bit better. The whole Caitlin and Khione character arc felt unnecessary. We got representatives from Arrow and Batwoman and
2023 April
-
This was an okay season with some interesting cameos. The ending brought Bo-Katan and Moff Gideon's story full circle and to a good conclusion and ending with Din Djarin and Grogu in a good spot for future adventures.
I like how the subtitles still refer to Din Djarin as "the Mandalorian" even when there are like fifty other Mandalorians in the same scene.
I'm not sure how much Pedro Pascal is earning his keep here. We never once see his face the entire season, so I'm wondering if he only gets VA rates?
-
This is the final season for Star Trek: Picard and hopefully the last great adventure for Admiral Jean-Luc Picard, we all know he has earned a rest!
I liked this season, probably more than seasons 1 or 2, mainly because I was a big fan of TNG - I watched a bit of it back in the 90s but was only able to binge all of it around 2015 I think. This season reunites Admiral Picard with his old crew as they discover a Secret Invasion-style conspiracy within Starfleet that leads them to face off against one of Picard's greatest Nemesis.
It was great seeing the old Enterprise crew somehow back together, old and gray-haired. Worf remains my favorite Enterprise crew member, even though he has softened a bit with age.
(Click photos to view full-size)
2023 March
-
Saw this was on D+ and decided to watch it, since it had garned some Emmy nods a while back. I was kind of expecting a joke-heavy thing, something like B99, but it's more like a like-hearted slice of life show with some absurdity sprinkled in. Good for background watching. Strong Modern Family vibes, even has the same mockumentary conceit. This kind of show tends to take a while to ramp up in enjoyment, as you need some time to get attached to the ensemble cast. The first season is short (it came in as a midseason replacement) so I'm not there yet, but I'll gladly give the second season a chance when it comes to streaming.
2023 February
-
This series came out on NF recently and I was reminded that I never watched the final season so I binged that in the background over a couple of days. Season is relatively short (15 eps) and I guess generally of the same quality as the previous ones. Mostly watched this one just to get some closure. A few laughs here and there, most plotlines resolved satisfactorily. The best thing about this show was the relatively large ensemble cast (since a big box store requires a lot of staff), so they rarely run out of B-plots to run.
2023 January
-
I don't really follow wrestling that much anymore, but when I do, it's one of two events: The Royal Rumble (always fun) and Wrestlemania. Last year I started group-watching them with some friends, and we are doing that again this year. Watching with friends is always fun because I'm so out of the loop so they can tell me about new wrestlers and recent storylines and we often reminisce about the old-timey wrestling stuff.
Was happy to find out this time that Disney+ was streaming the Royal Rumble live! Made things a lot easier. Wasn't able to watch live though, we saw it Monday night. The Disney+ version was a bit odd because they would randomly show these weird gray bars covering the lower part of the screen; we later found out it was because they were blocking the ads shown by WWE. And they also inserted ads for their own shows!
Anyway, the event itself was ok. We only watched the Men's Rumble, the Women's Rumble, and the main/event Title Match. (These events are so long, we didn't have time to watch everything!)
Was slightly annoyed at the Men's Rumble because the internet had already spoiled me as to who the winner was. Who puts that in article headline less than 24h after the event airs? Still, it was entertaining enough, although the eventual winner being the one who started at #30 was kind of lame. There were some great performances though, and I liked how Gunther (who I believe is new as he wasn't in the Rumble or Mania last year; this year he started at #1) was pushed and actually broke the previous record for longest stay in the Rumble.
Women's Rumble was kind of meh, mostly because I didn't know most of these people (back in my day, they didn't have enough women wrestlers to fill a rumble!). Title match was okay, though Mr Tribal Chief needs to be dethroned soon, and Zayn turn was very telegraphed.
-
Spy X Family: Been watching this for a few weeks now. Slowed down a bit because Netflix lost the English dubs in the second half of the season. The show is surprisingly funny given it's premise. Anya being secretly a telepath but also being an idiot provides for a hilarious POV and is a good contrast to Loid's hypercompetent and always serious superspy persona. Yor is a bit underdeveloped as a character, but I guess it's early still. Even the side characters which I initially thought would be annoying end up having hilarious motivations. I enjoyed the season enough that I started reading the manga on the Shonen Jump app, although that jumps me some 40 issues ahead I think, but I guess that's fine?!?
The wikipedia entry says the "X" in the title is silent, but I'll just keep pronouncing it the way I've been pronouncing "Hunter X Hunter" all these years.
-
That 90s Show dropped on Netflix this past week, I already finished the season. I think they did a good job nailing the general mood of the show and the 90s aesthetic, though it feels a bit like it's trying too hard at some points. The compressed season length doesn't give the characters much space to developer, so compared to the original show, everything feels a bit rushed or crammed in.
Let's face it, we're all here for the cameos from the original show anyway. It was weird seeing Wilder Valderama be Fez again when I've been watching him be all serious in NCIS. Out of all the returning cameos, Laura Prepon is the one who looks the most different from when she was on the original show. Topher Grace looks like he never left!
2022 December
-
Hey, it's Christmas day! Waves at all who celebrate. And this will be my final weeknotes entry for the year! The World Eh, let's not think about the world for a bit and enjoy the season, no matter what shenanigans Elon Musk has gotten into this time. My Week The first few weeks of December were still a bit hot, but the last week or so has thankfully brought us the much-awaited hanging amihan (Northeast monsoon) which means our weather is a lot better and nippier even. Should last until late January or early Feb, this is my favorite weather -
One week before Christmas and the second-to-last weeknotes for the year! The World Science: The US announced a fusion energy breakthrough, supposedly a big step towards clean energy. Crypto: Sam Bankman-Fried of FTX has been arrested, weeks after the collapse of his crypto exchange. Twitter: Twitter dissolved their trust and safety council, then Musk banned elonjet, a bunch of critical journalists, and even links to Mastodon. Some intrepid reporter thought that the banned @joinmastodon Twitter account to Mastodon's "founder" John Mastodon, which quickly became a meme on the platform. PH: The much-criticized SIM registration law is set to take effect
-
Trying to force weeknotes back into Sundays, at least for the last few entries of the year. The year ends on a Saturday though, so I'm still wondering if the Jan 1 weeknotes should be "Weeknotes 2023-01-01" or "2023 Weeknotes #1". How about "2023 Weeknotes #0", since it won't really cover the year 2023 yet? The World Still not paying too much attention to the world. It might be better overall for my mental health. Elon's Twitter seems to be going further into the right-wing conspiracy deep end based on these nonsense Twitter files exposes. The US exchanged an athlete
2022 November
-
Yesterday was the first Sunday of Advent. A bit more than one month to go in a year! The World Protests have erupted in China, even in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai, in what might be the biggest political challenge to the CCP since Tiananmen. Hopefully it doesn't end that way again though! The controversial Qatar World Cup kicked off this past week. Yesterday, some friends chastised me when I asked "Isn't the World Cup thing done yet?" Go sports! My Week Had a busy week. Lots of walking. Still feel really tired actually. I went in for a -
The World Twitter chaos continues. Devs fired then re-hired. Features rolled out then rolled back. Mastodon userbase has grown at least 300% in the interim. US midterm elections last Tuesday, and surprisingly, Democrats managed to hold the Senate, and the House is still in play. The prophesied "red wave" did not come to pass. My Week Had a fairly good week! A bit productive even. Got to do some work on side projects. Went out for a movie. Not really a sporty guy, but on Saturday my brothers invited me to go play badminton with them. It was nice, not
2022 October
-
Caught up with Jodie's last 3 Doctor Who specials this week, since the internet already spoiled me about the thing at the end. Spoilers will be unmarked.
Eve of the Daleks I should have enjoyed because I like time loops, but the execution here was a bit weird. They said in one of the earlier loops that they needed to save the guy because he was about to be killed and his death would be "locked in" for the next loop, which implies that they start each later loop with the "one-minute" state from the previous loops, but then later loops still have them starting out in the same place (Doctor near the Tardis, etc). I know this is all timey-wimey BS, but they should at least try to be consistent! Other than that, I have no real gripes about the episode, although it feels like it could have just been a regular season episode and not a special.
Legend of the Sea Devils was ok but kinda meh/unremarkable. Hooray for historical Asian representation I guess? Kind of rare in this series. Also could have been just a regular season episode.
The Power of the Doctor feels like a special, with all the appearances from previous Doctors and companions and multiple plot threads and disasters needing to be resolved simultaneously. Still a bit annoyed with the writing here as so much is handwaved and not explained at all. How did the master get the Daleks and the Cybermen to cooperate? Why did the shadow planet need to be in 1916, other than a need for Ra-ra-rasputin dance scene? Dan suddenly dropping out also didn't feel like it was handled very well. A lot of the set pieces were nice (especially the space train), but felt a bit like compensating for weak plotting with spectacle. Kinda typical of the Chibnail era actually.
Looking forward to what madness Russel T. Davies and Disney+ bring us for the next series!
-
I recently published a long-ish blog plost about the Hulk and New Mutants comics. And also I haven't watched any new movies lately, so I took the opportunity to knock a couple of related items off my "poorly-reviewed comic book movies" list. Hulk (2003) I wonder [what] Ang Lee [was thinking when he made a] Hulk [film]. "Ah, yes. I, critically acclaimed serious director Ang Lee, have something to say about the Hulk." a friend Eric Bana and Ang Lee's Hulk film honestly wasn't even that bad, though there are certainly some poor choices made in the film. I think -
It is now Throw Short People month. Three months remain in the year. Time continues to be stretchy. Maybe that's why today's weeknotes are a day late, or maybe I was just busy? The World PH/Covid: Covid cases are still in a plateau or a slight rise. I must admit that I haven't been paying close attention the past week though. PH, surprisingly "controversial": This past weekend the PCSO lotto rolled an interesting number combination: 9-18-27-36-45-54. People were also surprised when the PCSO announced that 433 people had won and would be splitting the jackpot. A senator wants this "controversy"
2022 August
-
Better Call Saul Went through seasons 5 and 6 of Better Call Saul the past few weeks. Spoilers below I guess. There is a little bit of tension lost in this series because you know that characters like Saul, Gus, and Mike survive through to Breaking Bad. That means the tension primarily revolves around the fates of the newer characters, particularly Kim Wexler and to a lesser extent Howard Hamlin, Lalo Salamanca, and Nacho Varga. The last two seasons solidifies Jimmy's transformation into Saul and his involvement with Lalo and the drug cartel and the stakes escalate quickly for those
-
The World Despite dire warnings from Beijing, US Speaker of the House Pelosi went ahead and visited Taiwan. In response, China has suspended international cooperation in several areas like climate change, and has conducted military exercises around Taiwan, even firing missiles over Taipei. It could be really bad for the world if all of this escalates while the whole Russian invasion of Ukraine is still ongoing. As of today, we are at 4k+ covid cases per day for four days in a row. We are inching up ever closer to 5k covid cases per week. I am hoping that this
-
The weekend kind of got away from me, so I'm doing this on a Monday instead. My weekends often seem to be busy, maybe I should consider just scheduling these on Mondays? The World Last Wednesday a magnitude 7 quake struck Luzon's Northern region. I am told it was felt all the way here, but I was asleep and of course felt nothing. I awoke to an annoying NDRRMC message though. Former PH president Fidel V. Ramos has passed away. There is a pattern. We broke 4k daily covid cases last week, though the counts really feel like they are
2022 July
-
The World Our local covid cases continue to tick upwards, albeit a bit slowly, and the health care utilization rate still holds at low values. Positivity rates are climbing though, especially in NCR, so the "real" case counts are probably a bit higher. If I had to I would guess the current "surge" peaks in maybe 2-3 weeks. Tomorrow is president BBM's first state of the nation address. It's a big brouhaha I hope to ignore completely. Earlier today, there was a shooting incident at Ateneo de Manila. Three people died. It was a politically-motivated assassination attempt in broad daylight